13 Arrested In Citywide Raid

Torrington, State Police Target Illegal Drug Trade

July 11, 1997|By DAVID OWENS; Courant Staff Writer

TORRINGTON — City and state police swarmed throughout Torrington Thursday, arresting nine alleged drug dealers. Four more were arrested on related charges and additional arrests are expected, police said.

The arrests followed a four- month investigation into the local illegal drug market by Torrington police and the Statewide Narcotics Task Force. Several of those arrested are charged with selling crack cocaine and marijuana.

The roundup began Thursday afternoon as officers from both departments, armed with arrest warrants, fanned out across the city in search of suspects. The culmination was a raid about 8 p.m. on the Franklin Street Cafe, a bar at Center and Franklin streets that police described as a center of drug activity.

Troopers and local police, guns drawn, surrounded the bar. Soon after, officers started escorting patrons out. Police arrested three people and searched an adjacent apartment. Officers had obtained a search warrant for the apartment, said state police Lt. Gregory K. Senick, area commander of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force. It was one of two search warrants officers executed Thursday.

``It's about time,'' said one neighborhood resident who declined to give his name. He joined about two dozen others watching police question bar patrons, and handcuff and frisk those who had been arrested. Torrington police Officer Gerald Mosley used the department's drug-detecting dog to check the bar for narcotics.

Troopers and local police at the scene were smiling and shaking each others hands, happy with the results of their work.

``When you arrest 16 to 17 street dealers in one city I think it will have a significant impact,'' Senick said.

``It did do some damage to drug trafficking in the city, but to what extent and for how long we don't know,'' said Officer Ronald Schmitt, a police department spokesman.

State police Sgt. Shawn Boyne, a task force supervisor, said the cooperation among Torrington police vice and narcotics squad members was key to gathering enough evidence to make the arrests.